Hello folks,

I am new to banana plants in my life for first time. I got banana seeds a few months ago before I discovered this web site. Last late March, I sow a few seeds into the small pots with wet Hoffman seed-starting soil mix and put them into the ziplock bags for high humidity. Then, I placed them on the heat mat on my garden shelf. They did not germinate yet. How long do they take to germinate? I was concerning about that because my soil was too wet that can cause seeds to rot.

I searched other postings and learned something. Someone said that use heat mat with timer and get banana seeds to germinate successfully in a few weeks. I have heat mat but not with timer (only termostat control).

I was searching for better banana germination instructions through the Internet but not much... Does anyone has better banana germination instructions by using heat mat with timer or so? How much moisture level do they can germinate? Which good potting mix? How about Micracle-Pro standard potting mix (compost, peat, and pertitle mixes) that I have here? Etc..

Thanks!
Tim

Sorry no one has answered this for you. I regularily grow banana plants from seed and here is my method:

Boil one qt. of water and pour this over seeds. Leave seeds in this for five days.

Fill a flat with a good potting soil such as miracle grow and set on a heat mat or heating pad set on high (90-95 degrees is what you are seeking)

Plant seeds 1" apart and cover with a piece of plastic or glass.

Turn heating pad off at night and back on during the day.

You will see sprouting after a few weeks, sporadically. Some seeds may even take up to a year, but most will sprout with-in a months time.

Carefull dig up the seeds and pot them in small pots and move up to larger pots as they continue to get larger. Don't over-water until you see they have plenty of leaves to take up this moisture or they will rot.

Grow on as for any banana plant after that.

---

Make your words soft and sweet; you just may have to eat them someday.